MMTC President and Executive Director David Honig writes:
After more than two decades of work to promote and preserve equal opportunity and civil rights in mass media and telecommunications, there have been many victories and a few defeats. Through it all, the need for advocacy, sometimes loud, sometimes quiet, but always determined, remains unchanged.
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Access to capital is crucial to the success of minority entrepreneurs, and telecommunications policies can open doors for minority participation in American media — or close doors, if those policies are written without care and foresight. Providing access to needed capital and ensuring telecommunications policies provide for equal opportunities remain central to MMTC’s mission and to this year’s conference.
Truth be told, even Steven Wonder can see the doors to needed capital remain largely closed.
As I was helping myself to breakfast yesterday, a handout on AT&T’s information table caught my eye. You can imagine my delight and surprise when I saw it was a photo of Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller, the developers of the mobile app HBCU Buddy.
Instead, I took the ferry to Governors Island to explore the wonders of science with the next generation of inventors and innovators. As I walked around Governors Island, it was a pleasure to see the delight on their faces.
The World Science Festival is “designed to make the esoteric understandable and the familiar fascinating.” It is undeniable that African American children are fascinated with the esoteric. But that fascination fades by middle school. So educators, policymakers and advocates must reimagine STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to restore its cool factor.
The Internet Generation is familiar with GoDaddy.com from its ubiquitous Super Bowl ads. It would be cool if students knew Go Daddy’s daddy is a black man, Emmit McHenry, the founder of Network Solutions, the go-to website for domain name registration in the 1990s.
Time magazine recently asked: The Future of Innovation: Can America Keep Pace?
We need innovation urgently. But if we are to get the U.S. back to work, we need perhaps even more urgently to rebuild American education, reform our training system, revive high-end manufacturing, focus on new growth industries and rebuild our infrastructure. In fact, finding new ways to do these old tasks might be the greatest and most important innovation of all.
Indeed, throwing money at the problem is not the solution. Education spending has doubled in the last decade. Meanwhile, the United States has fallen to 17th in science literacy and 25th in math literacy.
Studies show there is a link between performance on math and science assessment tests and economic growth. Given the changing demographics, it is an economic imperative that we encourage interest in STEM education among underrepresented students.
In a speech to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009, President Obama said “the progress and prosperity of future generations will depend on what we do now to educate the next generation.” He called on the National Academies to reimagine science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education:
I want us all to think about new and creative ways to engage young people in science and engineering, whether it’s science festivals, robotics competitions, fairs that encourage young people to create and build and invent -- to be makers of things, not just consumers of things.
Innovations and creativity in science, engineering, technology and math will be the drivers of tomorrow’s economy…And if you are not a participant at the frontier, you will trail behind it and possibly get left behind entirely.
Tyson observed that “math needs better marketing.”
Indeed, we must reimagine STEM education in order to stem the tide of joblessness in the African American community.
The Washington Post reports black joblessness is at a 40-year high:
The percentage of black men with jobs last month dropped to its lowest point in 40 years. The situation is worse for teens, worse again in the South and worst of all in late May as graduates swell the job market.
The result for black men ages 16 to 19 is a fate that now resembles a coin toss. Of those seeking work, 54.6 percent find jobs. More than 45 percent do not.
Consider: The academic achievement gap is well-documented. For background information, check out the report, “The Black-White Achievement Gap,” prepared by the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies under the leadership of DeWayne Wickham.
Now consider this: The Pew Internet & American Life Project found there is no racial gap in the ownership of portable and console gaming devices. But few black students Americans know a black man, Jerry Lawson, developed the first video game console system. Or know that one of the top video game artists is a beautiful black woman, Lisette Titre.
To change the equation, education innovators should adopt culturally relevant web-based tools that will motivate black students and foster relationships with role models who can connect STEM literacy with their day-to-day lives and career opportunities.
Tyson told O’Brien:
The connection between STEM fields and the financial stability of the nation is what needs to be established. That connection somehow is broken and people don’t see it…You should value science, engineering, technology and math. If you do so, you get to innovate and invent new industries, new economies. If you invent new economies, everybody has jobs tomorrow.
In 1979, McFadden & Whitehead released “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.” The song epitomizes TSOP, The Sound of Philadelphia.
Last week’s announcement that Comcast Interactive Capital will provide seed funding for five minority-led startups through a partnership with Philadelphia-based DreamIt Ventures is music to the ears of minority entrepreneurs and their advocates.
In a statement, Payne Brown, Comcast Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, said:
Diversity is a cornerstone of Comcast’s culture and we are proud to have Comcast Interactive Capital partner with DreamIt in this first investment from our $20 million fund focused on expanding opportunities for minority entrepreneurs. Minority groups are underrepresented in startup ventures and we believe supporting minority entrepreneurs through the DreamIt accelerator is an effective way to provide them with greater opportunities.
The Comcast-DreamIt partnership springs from a commitment by Comcast to expand opportunities for minority entrepreneurs. That commitment was part of the company’s merger with NBCUniversal, which the Federal Communications Commission approved in January.
My longtime friend David Honig, president and executive director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, told Politic365:
This is just what MBEs need — seed money, support and mentoring at the very start of their careers as entrepreneurs. Until now, no program has offered this kind of essential opportunity to minority digital entrepreneurs. Comcast’s venture capital initiative is off to a great start.
